18 LES FANTOMS- Beat in E (1966)

The story of Les Fantoms out of Baden, Lower Austria, is the tale of instant (yet, admittedly, regional) fame by wild shows, solid Beat sound, and funky live stunts. “We were all either working, or still went to school,” remembers rhythm guitarist Franz Wendtner. “On weekends, we would play in front of 200, 300 people. A couple of times, the police had to come to lock down the doors, since the venue was so crowded.”

Local pop promoter Leo Mitterer gave the band a contract, and arranged for a recording session at Konzerthaus Vienna. In a rush, the manager founded his own label LM to release two of the resulting songs on 7” in August 1966. Especially the flip side, “Beat in E”, an ultra hard rocking surf punk instrumental, sounds very unusual for an Austrian band of the time. Highly recommended! The group, however, spent the rest of their days as a Soul-inspired show combo, before they fell out over money and disbanded in the spring of 1968.